BAKSH DR

BAKSH, DR ILAHI (1904-1960) Ilahi Baksh, a physician who had been a prisoner of war during World War II while serving in the British Indian Army, gained national recognition on being appointed “doctor-in-waiting” in 1947 after Muhammad Ali Jinnah became Pakistan’s first governor-general He attended the terminally ill head of the new Pakistani state during the latter’s illness and eventual death He was with Jinnah in Ziarat, a hill station in Balochistan, when he determined that Pakistan’s founding father was close to death Dr Baksh was at Jinnah’s side when the governor-general was flown back to Karachi and died the following day on 11 September 1948 Dr Baksh’s care of Governor-General Jinnah won him great affection and admiration in the country General Muhammad Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s first military president, consulted him on health policies He wrote a long report on the state of health in Pakistan, completing it in early 1960, and presented it to President Ayub